Article by Peter Ball

This page about The Clovelly Puppet Theatre is from Puppets of Australia by Norman Hetherington (1974)

I had a favourite park that was about a kilometre from where I grew up in Clovelly, Sydney, and as a child of the sixties, I could wander that far from home unescorted.

The steep-sided gully that formed the park made perfect slopes for sliding downhill on scraps of cardboard until your skin itched from the grass seed. It also had one of the biggest swings in the area that seemed to reach for the sky. However, sitting high on the bank, dominating the park, was the mysterious and colourfully painted tin shed of the Burnie Park Puppet Theatre (also known as the Clovelly Puppet Theatre).

I had previously avoided it as there was an old lady in there and she reminded me of a witch, something we feared as kids. But one day I noticed that for a few pennies you could join in a craft activity on Saturday afternoon. While there, I discovered that the old lady, a Mrs Edith Murray, was rather kind and interesting and she needed new volunteer puppeteers to train up. Well, how could I resist?

The memories are a bit of a blur now, but I recall the tin shed was maybe ten by four metres roughly and without windows(?) just double opening doors on one side. There was a stage at one end with curtains and a marionette gallery behind. There were tables or benches set up in the remaining space, depending on the activity. I think it was alternating craft one weekend and puppet theatre the next and the entry fee was miniscule, like three-pence or similar. I very much doubt that the wonderful Mrs Murray ever made a red cent of profit from it.

The space behind the stage was quite something. It was barely a metre wide and jam-packed with stuff to make and maintain puppets on a tiny workspace, under a bare electric lightbulb swinging from above. It even felt cramped for me, as a child of around eight or nine.

We would meet on Friday nights and rehearse the next puppet play and also sometimes repair or make props or puppets as needed, under the sharp eye of our mentor. Things had to be done properly!

However, she also nurtured and respected our creative input, despite us being children. One time, while on a break, I made up a science fiction story and told the other kids. I was then and still am, a storyteller. Edith quietly slipped into a child-sized seat nearby with a notebook and pen and silently made notes. When the break was over, she announced, “That is our next play we will produce!”

What followed was so much work that I seriously regretted ever bringing the damn story up! She typed up the full play, and we all worked hard to create the props and puppets and rehearsals and eventually got to perform it to great applause. It was a most incredible experience for a child to take part in the entire creative process from scratch and I shall never forget it. Most adults in those days just sent the kids outside to play, and would rarely ask their opinion or input.

There is one other significant memory from that time. Mrs Murray as we called her, invited me and one or two other kids to accompany her on a full day out to some ritzy mansion overlooking the harbour. I think it was the governor’s house, maybe? We were to perform a puppet play using hand puppets with a portable plywood theatre. Apart from the folding theatre, which was large and heavy, we also had boxes and suitcases of puppets and curtains etc as well. Edith didn’t have a car, so we had to take public transport, which was quite a mission for two kids and a senior lady loaded up as we were.

I have vague recollections of a lawn party on the expansive grounds of a mansion over-looking the harbour, where we set up our theatre and performed for the children present. That was the only time anyone ever paid us to perform.

At some point, the call of the surf beckoned, and I ceased going to the theatre but never forgot it.

For her time, I remember Edith Murray as a woman who saw the potential in children and didn’t believe that they ‘should be seen and not heard’. She is remembered with warmth and kindness.

Peter Ball

May 2025

Peter Ball reached out to UNIMA Australia with this lovely article he had written, with fond recollections of the Clovelly Puppet Theatre in the 1960s in Sydney, NSW. We thank him for this article, and for writing about Edith Murray, who we hold in special regard for UNIMA Australia. In 1968, Edith Constance Murray, now regarded as the founder of UNIMA Australia, helped for the organisation of a Convention of the Australian puppeteers organised in Adelaide. Puppeteers came from around Australia. In November 1969 the General Secretary of UNIMA gave Edith permission to form an centre and that began operating in 1970. Norman Hetherington was the first President, Edith Murray, his secretary.

Read Edith Murray’s bio written by Richard Bradshaw here: https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/murray-edith-constance-15065